


The one with the Spanish Tutor

by luxshine



Category: Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Popslash
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-27
Updated: 2012-02-27
Packaged: 2017-10-31 20:25:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/348035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luxshine/pseuds/luxshine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone knows Howie doesn't really speak spanish so... why did he have a spanish tutor way back in Europe? And why is Nick bringing it up, almost 15 years later?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The one with the Spanish Tutor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ray Ray](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Ray+Ray).



One of the worst disadvantages of being one fifth of the biggest boyband in the last decade of the 21st century was that your life was completely dissected by the press, and keeping a secret was almost impossible. Not only that, but if you did something even a little out of the ordinary, the press would not only comment on it for weeks, but also ask your bandmates, and then, because they loved a good fight, they would ask your so called rivals. The chain of questions ended around the time when your mother called you crying because she had found out from strangers that you had a new girlfriend.

Even if, most of the time, said girlfriend didn’t exist.

And it didn’t get better as time passed, no. Not even if the group managed to mend broken friendships and left the fat parasite that was their manager, taking a very long hiatus once Kevin had left the group. The press still haunted them. They were no longer on the top of the A list, and many people had considered the NKOTBSB tour as a gimmick to improve their “fallen star”… and yet there were still interviews and photographs and misunderstandings.

So, in hindsight, he should’ve seen this coming.

**_BRIAN'S SIDE_ **

“Did you ever think you were going to be together after 17 years?”

It had been a very innocent question, one that they all had heard before once the group hit the 10th anniversary. They even had stock answers for that one, answers that would keep the fans happy, and not reveal too much. But with the last album out, the first one without Kevin, and a new label that gave them far more freedom than Jive, they had decided to be more honest, especially about those first days.

“I wasn’t that sure, to be honest,” he said, smiling. It had been 17 years, he could admit that not everything had been pleasant at the beginning. “Everyone kept saying that boy bands would be just a fad, that we had maybe 2 albums tops and that would be it. So yes, I have to say that sometimes, I was sure that we would end up hating each other before the sixth month mark.”

“That’s a little different from the story you all said back then,” the interviewer pointed out. Brian was gracious enough to turn to look at his friends, who were watching him expectantly. Nick, in particular, seemed very interested on what he had to say. “You all talked as if you were best friends.”

“And by the time we finished our first album, we were,” Brian assured her, not losing his smile. “But there were a couple of moments before that when we had our differences. Mostly, I think it was the pressure of what we were doing, the uncertainty, and at least for me, that we didn’t really know each other. A.J, Nick and Howie knew each other for a long time, but me and Kevin… we didn’t had that. So it took us some time to get used to everyone.”

“Who was the one you had more troubles to get along with at first?”

Brian turned to look at his friends, and smiled

“That’s easy. It was Howie.”

_1996, Germany. Brian’s story._

“Where’s Howie?” Brian asked as he entered the hotel room that A.J. was sharing with his other bandmate.

“Out,” A.J. answered, not even looking up from his book.

“So… when is he coming back?” Brian sat next to A.J, and waited. Getting used to be half ignored wasn’t easy, but he had somewhat managed. True, he could hang out with his cousin, or with Nick, who despite his age was quite fun to be with, but he also wanted to get along with both A.J. and Howie… and that was a little hard when Howie never was around whenever they had some free time.

“Is he consorting with the enemy again?” Brian breaking the silence after a minute or so.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” A.J. turned the page of his book, almost automatically, making Brian think that he wasn’t even reading and just looking for an excuse to make him go away. Too bad, because he wasn’t going to give up that easily.

“I know that Howie’s been going to *Nsync’s hotel whenever he can,” Brian insisted, lowering his voice a little. The other group’s name was not to be mentioned around either Kevin or Nick, as they had taken their existence more as a personal insult than as a proof that they were nothing but a tool for Lou Pearlman to make more money.

“And?” A.J. put down his book and then lowered his dark glasses, glowering at Brian. And yes, he had to admit that he was a little bit intimidated, even if A.J. was thinner and younger than him.

“I heard Justin and J.C. talking at the studio elevator the other day, Justin was complaining that Chris always ignores him when Howie comes to visit,” Brian explained, leaning towards A.J. “What is he going to do there?”

“Chris was his Spanish tutor in Valencia.” And with that A.J. left the room, as if he considered the subject closed.

* * *

**_A.J.’S SIDE._ **

“Is that true?” The interviewer turned to see Howie, obviously amused. “You didn’t get along with Brian at first?”

“Sweet D. has always been a hard nut to crack,” A.J interrupted, not giving Howie the opportunity to answer. “He’s a great friend, and I love him like a brother, but he doesn’t open up easily.”

“But you two have been always close, right?” The interviewer looked down on her notes as if she was checking something. A.J braced himself, he knew what was coming and he knew he had opened himself to it. “You were rooming with you when you decided to get into rehab, weren’t you?”

“We were,” A.J smiled. “But even before that, we looked after each other.”

“A.J is very good keeping secrets,” Nick interjected. A.J had to stop himself from frowning. There was a very definitive edge to Nick’s voice, as if he wasn’t sharing a happy memory, like Brian and A.J. were.

“Not really,” Howie muttered and now, A.J. was absolutely sure that he had made a mistake somewhere along the line. Howie sounded angry. Not that the interviewer would notice, but anyone who knew Howie, would understand that.

And probably blame him…

Yeah, perhaps it was a good time to shut up.

_1997, Orlando. A.J.’s story._

“So, A.J., where’s Howie?”

A.J. sighed, lowering the magazine he had been trying to read. Apparently, Brian had somehow gotten into his head that he was Howie’s keeper because every single time he needed to find their bandmate, Brian would ask him.

“How would I know? With his family, maybe?” He said, sighing. Of course, he knew where Howie was. Howie was his best friend, from way before the group even existed, so he knew a lot of Howie’s secrets. But he was not going to share any of them with Brian, or, god forbid, give him a clue. Even when they had become friends in the last year, there were things he was pretty sure they wouldn’t understand at all.

“Have you seen our schedule for the next month?” Brian asked, apparently changing the subject. A.J. shook his head, not really sure of where Brian was going with the question.

“Howie’s gotta give an interview for WCMQ FM next week.”

“WCMQ FM is a Spanish language station,” A.J. frowned. It was weird that Lou would let them do individual interviews unless there was an angle.

“Of course, why else would D go? Or you’re going to tell me you speak Spanish?” Brian explained slowly. But he was smiling, in such a way that A.J. was sure that he was trying to tell him something without actually saying. “He’s been getting extra lessons for two years now, hasn’t he?”

A.J. rolled his eyes, even if the gesture was completely lost thanks to his dark glasses. Of course. Although Brian wasn’t as paranoid as Kevin or Nick regarding *N Sync, who had thankfully stayed in Europe while the Backstreet Boys got ready for their American debut, he still had a stick up his ass because Howie dared to keep his friendship with Chris alive. Or something.

“Of course he does,” A.J. finally answered, deciding not to get in an argument with God boy right then. He had more important things to worry about. “It’s just that I was surprised that Lou wanted us to get into the Spanish speaking market so soon.”

“I take you haven’t seen either that we’re going to record Anywhere for You and I’ll Never Break your Heart in Spanish…” Brian laughed, taking A.J.’s dark glasses off. “You really have to start paying attention at the meetings.”

“I pay attention!” A.J. felt offended at the implication. Part of him wanted to stay and mock wrestle with Brian, just to make him forget about finding Howie, but he knew that he had to find D. too. At least to know if his friend was aware that thanks to Lou, he would have at least one hour practicing his Spanish, without Chris there to correct him.

* * *

**_NICK’S SIDE._ **

“It sounds like there’s a story there, Howie, care to share?” the interviewer asked and Nick stiffened. For someone outside the circle, everyone’s answers were probably just banter. The interviewer herself probably thought they had it all rehearsed and was trying to break them out from the script, but the truth was that Howie sounded mad. And a mad Howie was a talkative Howie and no matter how honest they wanted to be now, Nick was pretty sure that the NKTOB wouldn’t appreciate if the press focused again in the weird BSB/*NSYNC relationship rather than in the fact that NKOTB and BSB were doing a tour together and were planning to keep together after the tour was over.

Not to mention that Nick was absolutely sure that Justin would kill them if any reporter started again asking about an *N Sync reunion instead of whatever Justin was doing at the moment. And Justin already hated Nick for other reasons, so there was no reason to give him one more.

“He kept the secret of all my crushes when I asked him to.” Nick hoped that he had managed to sound like a petulant child again. It was an easy trick when he was 18, not so much now that he was 31. “So I think Howie is exaggerating a little.”

“I never exaggerate, Nick,” Howie said, although he was smiling. A real smile, and not a forced one, which meant that Nick wasn’t in trouble. Yet. “Or you don’t remember that A.J. was the one who started the rumor that I spoke fluent Spanish back when we started?”

“Hey, I did not!” A.J. laughed, faking outrage. “That was Brian, who was always talking about your Spanish tutor!”

“And who told Brian about my Spanish tutor?” Howie crossed his arms, glaring at A.J. Nick sighed. The last thing he wanted to do was to start talking about Howie’s Spanish ‘tutor’ because he knew that if they did, the interviewer would arrive to the exact same conclusion Nick had arrived years ago.

“Oh, was your ‘tutor’ a secret?” Bingo. Nick braced himself to hear yet again the story about how Howie had studied Spanish for more than 10 years and still mixed up pronouns, plurals, and the simple verb to be. “Was she your special lady?”

“Not that special,” Nick muttered, earning himself a glare from Howie.

Oh, yeah. Thanks to A.J., now Nick was in trouble. Again.

_1998, New York. Nick’s side._

“I’m 18 now,” Nick told Howie, as soon as his friend got in the room. It had taken a lot of bribing and maneuvering to get A.J. to change rooms with him, so Nick would’ve rooming with Howie, but Nick was determined to make the sacrifice worth it. He knew his plan was going to work.

“I know, Nick,” Howie answered, smiling. He looked tired, and after three hours in the studio, Nick couldn’t blame him. But the last three days, Howie had barely stepped in the hotel room they shared, and Nick was sure it was because he was taking more ‘Spanish classes’ with Chris, since *N Sync also happened to have been invited to the event.

“What I mean is, I’m not underage anymore,” Nick explained, walking towards Howie until they were face to face. Well, face to chest, as he had grown a lot taller than Howie since the group had started. “So I can do this.”

Not giving Howie the chance to say anything, or even to move, Nick just leaned forward and captured his bandmate’s mouth in a kiss, grabbing his shoulders just to keep steady. The kiss was nothing as he had imagined, mostly because it was short, and Howie wasn’t responding. In fact, Howie actually pushed him away immediately, and instead of looking pleasantly surprised, as in Nick’s fantasies, he looked furious.

“What the hell, Nick?!” Howie asked, once he got over the shock and managed to put some distance between them without actually leaving the room. “What’s wrong with you?”

“That’s exactly what I want to know!” Nick answered, confused. There was no reason why Howie would actually push him away. He had seen the signs. In the videos, in the photoshots… Howie was always with him. Sure, he had expressed more than once that he wasn’t fond of Nick’s pranks, but if Howie really hated them, he would’ve made Kevin or Brian make him stop. To Nick, it was a very clear sign: If Howie put up with the pranks it was because he understood that Nick was only trying to show how much he liked Howie. And now that he was old enough, there was no reason why Howie couldn’t accept that so they could be together.

“Why did you kiss me?” Howie asked, obviously still not getting on with the program.

“Why didn’t you?” Nick frowned. “I figured you wanted me to take the first step, so why didn’t you kiss back?”

“I didn’t want to kiss you, Nick!” Howie crossed his arms, and it was then when Nick realized he had made a huge mistake. He had never seen Howie so closed up to him. “What gave you the idea that I would?”

“You kiss Chris Kirkpatrick,” Nick answered, looking down. He really didn’t want to think about that.

“Who told you that?” And, to hurt him even more, Howie didn’t deny it.

“A.J. told Brian about your ‘spanish classes’,” Nick couldn’t stop himself from air quoting. Because he really didn’t understand how Howie thought he was fooling anyone. “And I don’t get it, what does Chris has that I don’t?”

“I have no idea what A.J was thinking, or why you think that Chris is not my Spanish tutor,” Howie started saying, but Nick interrupted him.

“Oh, please, you don’t even speak Spanish! It’s obviously just an excuse to go and spend time fucking your boyfriend!”

“Si Chris es o no mi novio, no es tu asunto. Además, ya estoy bastante grandecito como para no tener que dar pretextos para irme a coger a quien yo quiera, incluso si es Chris fucking Kirkpatrick de *NfuckingSync,” Howie said, not rising his tone, but obvioulsy really angry. Also, he had just proved to Nick that yes, he spoke spanish.

“What did you just say?”

“I said that it’s none of your business if Chris is my boyfriend or not, and that I’m old enough not to need excuses to go with whoever I want, even if it’s Chris, ok?” And it was true, Nick had been sticking his nose where it didn’t belong, and he had gotten burned. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but he knew he couldn’t take anything back.

“I… I’m sorry,” Nick sighed, but then, another thought crossed his mind. One that hurt a little bit more than knowing that the only one he had ever really wanted was in fact dating the enemy. And that despite his better judgment, gave him a little tiny bit of hope. “But… wait… why didn’t you say anything? I mean, if it’s that serious with him, why don’t you just yell it from the rooftops instead of making up a fake girlfriend? Or you don’t care at all about Chris so you hid him from everyone?”

“I love Chris, Nick,” Howie said, his voice softening as he spoke. “Don’t ever doubt it. But I also care about you, and Brian, A.J. and Kevin, and even a little bit about Lance, J.C., Justin and Joey. If I came out, if Chris and I came out… it would hurt your future. The press wouldn’t care about anything but the fact that Chris and I are together, and our fans would hate us so… we keep quiet for all of you. You get that, don’t you?”

As he spoke, Howie got close enough to hug Nick, obviously to show him that there were no hard feelings, that Nick hadn’t ruined their friendship because of his crazy hormones. And it was right then when Nick realized that what he felt for Howie before had only been a silly crush.

Because right at that moment, he completely fell in love with him, and Chris or no Chris, he was going to do everything in his power to win Howie’s love.

* * *

**_HOWIE’S SIDE._ **

“I was not dating my spanish tutor,” Howie finally managed to say. He was going to have a stern talk with Nick later about his jealous reaction, of course, because he thought that that was now a thing of the past.

After Nick and Chris had grown so close in the last few years after *N Sync’s separation, he had hoped that Nick would understand exactly what his place was in Howie’s life.

“Of course you weren’t,” Brian laughed, and Howie sighed. Obviously, Brian had never gotten the whole story, or he wouldn’t be making jokes about it on live television.

“It sounds like you were, Howie,” the interviewer said, smiling widely. Of course, she had obviously sensed what was a very good gossip nugget. “Who was the lucky lady?”

Next to him, Brian, A.J. and Nick snickered. Howie managed to keep his most polite smile and decided to take the plunge. After all, they had kept the secret for years, and he knew exactly how to deflect any suspicion.

“I don’t think Chris Kirkpatrick would like anyone calling him a lucky lady,” he said, smiling widely to show that he was joking. Just in case Chris was watching the interview. “And he was my Spanish tutor, ever since college.”

“Oh, no. You’re not going to get away with that easy lie!” The interviewer looked amused, as if she had decided that of course Howie had to be kidding. “It was common knowledge that back then you and *N Sync mixed as well as water and oil. If Chris Kirkpatrick had been your tutor, everyone would’ve known.”

“You can ask Chris,” Howie kept smiling, even as Nick tensed next to him. It served him well, Howie thought, after all, it had been Nick the one who had given the interviewer the idea to keep pressing the matter. “He’ll tell you I’m not lying.”

“We can do that, we have his number,” the interviewer said smiling. It was then when Howie felt his stomach drop. They were in Orlando, after all, and every single entertainment show had, at least once, interviewed *N Sync. And due to his charity efforts, Chris tended to give his phone away quite easily to shows like this one. He was dead.

Because if he suggested that they called later, the interviewer would keep trying to fish for the so called truth. And the way that the others had been behaving, there was no telling what kind of conclusions she and her viewers would draw.

“H’lo?” Chris sleepy voice drew him out of his thoughts. It was just 10:00 p.m., Chris shouldn’t be asleep at the moment.

“Hi, Chris,” he said, prompted by the interviewer. Of course, he had been the one who proposed they called him. “I just called to ask you something…”

“D?” Chris sounded a little bit more awake, but not much. It made Howie wonder if he had been at a party. “Do you know what time is it?”

“It’s 10:00 p.m., Chris,” Howie answered automatically, as Nick groaned behind him. That put Howie in the alert. He had made a mistake somehow.

“For you, maybe,” Chris replied, and there was the sound of something hitting the phone. “But for me it’s like 4:00 a.m., because I’ve gone almost 48 hours without sleeping, and after two days of filming you know I like to sleep.”

“What do you mean, filming?” Howie was confused. The conversation was definitively not going the way he thought it would go.

“We’re doing Nigels 11’s first video,” Chris said, very slowly. Howie knew that tone very well. It was the exact tone Chris had used many years ago when Howie was struggling with the difference between hubiera and hubiese. “As I told you, two weeks ago, when you said that you were closing the winter leg of the NKOTBSBABCWTF tour…”

“Sorry, Chris, I forgot…”

“You never listen to me, do you?” Chris kept going, and Howie bit his lip. They had woken up Chris, after what had obviously been a long day, and now Chris was angry and when Chris was angry and sleepy, he tended to keep on talking without listening which was a very, very bad thing. “I mean, I talk, and talk and talk, and probably the only thing you hear is Charlie Brown’s teacher speaking. Maybe I should say it to you in Spanish, as that seems to be the only time when you really pay attention to me.”

“No, Chris, I pay attention to you, but Nick…” Howie started saying. He really didn’t want Chris speaking in Spanish when he was halfsleep.

“Nick pays attention to me!” Chris interrupted. “You don’t hear Nick calling us in the middle of the night because he misses us! Not even during House of Carters, and he knew that I was going to be really tired tonight, so he isn’t calling.”

“Nick is here with me, Chris,” Howie said, covering his head with his hands. There was a small chance that they could play Chris’s words as a joke, as long as Chris didn’t say another word.

“I don’t believe you,” Chris yawned on the phone, making Howie half smile. He could picture Chris right now, his hair disheveled and messy, his eyes half closed as he tried to form words and fight sleep. And he had probably taken a shower before getting into bed, so he would be shirtless. The image was almost good enough to make Howie forget the mess he had managed to get them into.

“Hi, Chris,” Nick greeted. Howie had to admire him, as Nick managed to sound chirpy and not mortified at all. On the other hand, he could see in A.J.’s and Brian’s expressions that they had just put two and two together and figured that Nick didn’t spend all his time with Chris and he because Nick had finally gotten over Howie and was a good friend. Shit.

“Et tu, Nick?” Chris asked, over dramatically… but teasing. And that was even worse. “So, you both conspired to make sure I didn’t sleep because why? You totally wanted to try conference calling phone sex again, because after the last attempt…“

“A.J. and Brian are also here, Chris!” Howie interrupted, yelling. The interviewer was actually blushing, probably imagining how that last attempt went , and on the corner of his eye, he could see A.J. handing Brian a bill. His life was over.

“Kinky.” And Chris wasn’t helping. “I don’t believe you, Howie, the only reason why you and Nick would be talking to me on the phone with A.J. and Brian in front of you is either because they found that video of our vacation in Cancun, and then I just want to remind them that Nick was 21 and therefore completely considered an adult no matter what state we were in…”

“Chris, we’re in an interview,” Nick interrupted this time, making Howie feel a bit better. At least he wasn’t the only one getting completely mortified.

“Hi, Chris,” Brian and A.J. said at the same time. To their credit, they weren’t laughing, although Howie was sure that had taken all of their combined willpower. The situation was unreal, and yes, if it was happening to anyone but him, Howie would be laughing to.

“Brian? A.J?” And now, finally, Chris sounded completely awake. “Oh, shit… you heard everything?”

“With half the country, yeah,” A.J. managed to answer, as Brian couldn’t contain his laughter anymore. “This is a live interview.”

As Chris cursed, Howie remembered that there was a 10 minute delay on the transmission precisely to prevent curse words going out unbleeped. He just hoped the whole conversation had been muted or something. Sure, the cat was out of the bag, and they would have to give a lot of explanations, but at least it would be a bit more dignified than Chris talking about phone sex because he was tired.

“Well,” the interviewer cleared her throat, making Howie turn to look at her. “I can see clearly that the rivalry between the two bands was certainly not as bad as everybody thought. How long have you three been together then?”

Howie sighed. On the bright side, at least it had happened after Kevin’s retirement, so they hadn’t caused ‘Backstreet Dad’ a heart attack.

* * *

**_KEVIN’S SIDE._ **

Kevin had a lot of free time since he had retired from the stage. So much, that the only reason why he didn’t go back to the group was that he wanted to be around Mason as long as he could, without any interruptions due to his job. That and the absolute certainty that, no matter what Korean and Japanese producers thought, a ten man band was a logistic nightmare for a show and by now, he had come to accept that NKOTBBSB was going to last for a while.

After leaving the group, he had changed his routine, trying to be more relaxed. Part of it was that, if before he used to check his email at least five times a day, now he left it for the end of the week. Especially since all his cousins had discovered Facebook and all the silly little games within it, so half of his inbox was filled with requests to join him in Farmville, Castleville, Cityville and Villeville.

Which didn’t explain the fifty mails that were now the first ones on the inbox, all marked urgent, and all from one person that Kevin was sure he had never given his email address to. He read the first one, then the fifth one, and then the one that had a video attached to it, and frowned. He had known this day would come, but after leaving the group he had hoped to be spared from the fallout.

He pulled out his phone and looked through his contacts until he found the one he was looking for, the one marked ‘Cardtrick’, just in case someone in the press got hold of it.

His call got answered in the first ring.

“Hey, Kevin, your boys are not home, want to leave a message?” Chris said, even before Kevin could greet him.

“Hey, Chris, sorry, but I was looking for you.”

“Oh, no,” Chris automatically answered and Kevin knew that if it had been a video call, he would’ve seen Chris shook his head. “You can’t be angry about last week’s interview. You already knew about Howie, and Nick and I…”

“Sure I did,” Kevin answered, trying not to laugh at Chris’s obvious discomfort. “But I wanted to know exactly why Lance is blaming me for you not letting him out you in his book… and ask you if now it’s a good time to finally schedule that intraband barbeque at your home without anyone getting paranoid about showing too much affection. Because for what I just saw, you gave more than enough details two weeks ago to worry about that ever again.”

Chris started laughing, and Kevin joined him, as he opened his browser on Amazon. There had to be a good gift that said ‘Congratulations to my three dense friends for their accidental outing and return to the microscope of the press and paparazzi without having to resort to yet another reality show’ but with a shorter card.


End file.
